Check out this video of a Japanese dude doing some cool magic tricks with his iPad. The trick is not too hard. He's playing a video and his show it timed to the second on this video. It still is a nice and entertaining show.
Month: May 2010
Quickly Change Wifi Network With YFiSelect
Do you hate the fact that you have to exit out of your app and go into the settings just to change your wifi network? Well now there’s an app for that!
From the developer that brought you jailbreak apps such as Music Controls, Calendar Pro and Resupported comes his latest app called YFiSelect. YFiSelect gives you quick access to your wifi network options from anywhere.
In order to get YFiSelect to work you just simply hold your carrier down until you get prompted to change your wifi network or you hold down the wifi button in SBSettings. It is also compatible with Activator and WiCarrier.
YFiSelect is available on Cydia for $0.99. It is compatible with the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch.
Netflix App Hacked to Work on iPhone
Until now you could only play the Netflix application on the iPad but a smart MMI reader figured out a way to port the app to the iPhone.
Here are the instructions on how to set up Netflix on the iPhone:
Get the Netflix app from iTunes Locate and rename the .ipa file to .zip and extract it Go into the .app file, located at /appname/Payload/appname.app, (show package contents) and open the info.plist Edit all references of OS version to show iphone OS 3.1.3 (or your respective version). Save and closeNow, just copied over SSH (with permissions repair and a respring) this will show up on the phone. With Netflix though, it required the mediaplayer frameworks from the iPad.
SSH, get the mediaplayer frameworks folder from an iPad, located at /System/Library/Frameworks/MediaPlayer.framework Copy that to the same location on an iPhone (don't forget to back up the original from your iPhone just in case). Change permissions to 755 recursive for directories, and then go inside the folder and change the individual file permissions to 644. (Or just recursive 755 to all files/folders on the MediaPlayer.framework folder)Now the mediaplayer frameworks are in place, all that's left is a manual install of the app.
SSH, go to /private/var/stash/Applications Copy the appname.app file there and change permissions. (I used 777 recursive for simplicity's sake, but I'm sure the normal 775 would work). Launch and have fun.These instructions were copied from MMI and slightly altered for reading purposes.
This great hack has some downsides. Apparently Netflix on the iPhone will drain your battery, crash repetitively and will be very slow on 3G, which is not very surprising. Maybe these reasons are why Netflix hasn't released an official iPhone app yet.
I'm currently in France and I can't get Netflix to work here but I'd love to hear your feedback if you try it on. [via MMI]
SmokeScreen to Play Flash Videos on Your iPhone and iPad
Flash. That's something most iPhone users have been forced to give up. Fortunately there is still a handful of renegade coders that won't let Steve Jobs and his gang dictate what you can or cannot view on your iPhone.
Chris Smoak is one of these guys. Because he is aware that no matter what Apple thinks, Flash is still a huge part of the Internet, he developed Smokescreen, a workaround that will allow you to play Flash content on your iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch.
Here is how SmokeScreen works: "It runs entirely in the browser, reads in SWF binaries, unzips them (in native JS), extracts images and embedded audio and turns them in to base64 encoded data:uris, then stitches the vector graphics back together as animated SVG."
SmokeScreen is just at its beginnings. Since Smokescreen is written in JavaScript, it is slower than the Flash plugin and is limited in speed by the performance of the browser. Still, it's a nice beginning that gives us hope to see Flash one day running on iPhone OS. [via Engadget]
ProSwitcher HD for iPad to be Released Soon
ProSwitcher, one of the best jailbreak apps that brought multitasking to the iPhone is about to be updated for the iPad. Ryan Petrich, the developer of ProSwitcher sent a tweet a few hours ago announcing the future release of the application.
For those of you who aren't familiar with ProSwitcher yet, it is a multitasking app for the iPhone that kinda replicates the Palm Pre “cards” feature by adding a very nice UI to Backrounder, the jailbreak app that allows you to run apps in the background.
I'm a big fan of Ryan Petrich's work in general, and specially of ProSwitcher which I consider a must-have application. I'm definitely looking forward the iPad release. So far, there is no estimated time of arrival but I doubt it will take too long.
iPhone News You Missed This Week
This is a wrapup of all the articles that were published on the blog this past week.
Android on iPhone 3G now available Spirit jailbreak ported to Linux Browser Changer open links in 3rd party browsers aDownloader download manager for iPhone myPhoneDesktop sends images, URLs, phone numbers and text wirelessly to your iPhone Apple surpasses Microsoft in market cap SNES (HD) Super Nintendo emulator for iPad iPhone 3GS OS 4 beta 4 jailbroken iBye: an easy alternative to backup your iPhone data Using a PIN barely protects your iPhone data 10 year old kid fixes cracked iPhone screen for $22 Publish your books in Apple iBookStore 05.12.01 baseband unlock for iPhone coming soon Bing to replace Google in iPhone OS 4 Wi-Fi Sync updated for Windows and iPadWi-Fi Sync Updated for Windows and iPad
A couple of weeks ago, I told you about Wi-Fi Sync, a jailbreak app that allows you to sync your iPhone over wifi. At the time, Wi-Fi sync was only available on Mac OS X.
An update is now available for Wi-Fi Sync that brings support for Windows users, and also for the iPad.
You can get Wi-Fi Sync from Cydia for $9.99. You will also need to install the free software on your computer.
This is Big: Bing to Replace Google in iPhone OS 4
This is some seriously big news. TechCrunch reported yesterday that according to their sources, Bing might replace Google as the default search engine in the upcoming iPhone OS 4.
To most people, this news won't mean much and some of you might even think it's not a big deal. But it is. It is a huge deal because it's just one more fight between Apple and Google in the great battle to take over the mobile market.
Back in December I wrote an article (one of the first on the topic, mind you) titled "Apple Vs Google: the war is on" in which I was kinda predicting that things were going to turn bad between the 2 giants. Then a bit later, rumors started going around that Apple and Microsoft might actually join forces to fight the oh-so-evil Google.
Today it seems that these rumors are resurfacing, and as anti-Google advocate, I'm hoping these rumors come true.
Google is rumored to be paying $100M/year to Apple for being the default search engine. My guess is that Microsoft offered at least the same amount. At any rates, I don't think Apple is in it for the money here ; after all, $100M is peanuts for Apple.
They're just realizing that the iPhone is powered by too many Google services (maps, YouTube, search), and if they want to fight Google on the mobile market, they have to fight them everywhere, which means getting rid of as many Google services.
While a Microsoft/Apple partnership would have sounded completely crazy a few years ago, it seems to make more and more sense today. Microsoft is not going to win the mobile battle (heck, they're already losing it) and they know it. They also know they have to partner with someone strong in the mobile market if they want to be relevant in search. Good move from Microsoft if indeed this rumor is true.
In the meanwhile, Apple surpasses Microsoft as the largest tech company in the world. It's crazy to see how quickly things can move.
What do you think?
05.12.01 Baseband Unlock for iPhone Coming Soon
Some good news for those of you who accidentally upgraded their iPhone to OS 3.1.3 with baseband 05.12.01. According to MuscleNerd, there will be an iPhone unlock for baseband 05.12.01 when iPhone OS 4 comes out later this June.
MuscleNerd revealed this information when someone asked him about it on Twitter.
In his reply, MuscleNerd confirmed there will be an unlock for the iPhone 3GS but he also gave us a piece of advice that is too often disregarded.
It is indeed not widely understood enough that one should not update his iPhone right away when Apple pushes a new OS update. If you want to be able to jailbreak or unlock future iPhone OSs, then keep in mind not to update right away. Wait for a while until the Dev Team gives us a go or instructions to update safely while preserving the baseband.
Publish Your Book in Apple’s iBookStore
Apple has implemented a way for accomplished writers as well as wannabes to distribute their content on the iBookStore. I'm sure JD Salinger would despise this but it's still a good way for anyone to get in front of a massive audience.
This service allows you to submit your books but also to set up your account to collect your remuneration from books sales.
I guess the hardest part here is not to get your book in the iBookStore, it's to get it written...
You can check all the requirements here.
10 Year Old Kid Fixes Cracked iPhone Screen in 40 Minutes for $22
If you ever cracked the screen of your iPhone, you faced 2 options. You could either pay $200 to have it fixed, or you could fix it yourself. Not sure you can do it yourself? Then check out this 10 year old kid who fixed his dad's cracked iPhone screen in under 40 minutes, all this at the ridiculous amount of $21.95.
To make you feel better, the kid comes from a geeky family. Still, it's a nice performance!
More pictures on Cnet.
Using A PIN Barely Protects Your iPhone Data
So you thought that using a PIN was enough to protect your iPhone data? Think again! According to a recent report by Bernd Marienfeldt, your iPhone is highly vulnerable and leaves your data wide open, even if protected by a PIN.
Sure a PIN can protect you from having the average thief dig into your data but someone with more technical knowledge and a computer running Ubuntu Lucid Lynx can easily navigate into the guts of your iPhone, even if it is locked and not jailbroken.
According to Engadget: "The belief is that they're just a buffer overflow away from full write access as well, which would surely open the door to making calls. Bernd believes the iPhone's lack of data encryption for content is a real problem, and also cites the inability to digitally sign e-mails as reasons why the iPhone is still not ready for prime time in the enterprise."
What can you do right now to protect your data? Nothing. Just cross your fingers hoping that Apple will soon enforce data encryption for its devices.
You can read the full report here.